June 22, 2014
Grace Baptist Church’s 100th Anniversary Service, 1:00 PM, 484 E San Fernando St, San Jose, CA 95112
What is the power of a name? According to a recent study conducted on 89 undergraduate students, a person’s economic and educational standing may be in direct correlation with a person’s name. While researchers point out that a person’s essence, status, and general fate cannot possibly be defined based on the nature of a name alone, they do, however, suggest that expectations towards others tend to be closely associated with individual names.
If you care to know, this is Onomastics, the study of the origin, history, and use of proper names. Onomastic scholars focus on the personal naming-systems used in different cultures and the pattern of those systems. Researchers point out that people of certain social and educational backgrounds prefer different names, surmising that a person’s given name can in fact determine their level of academic achievement. This is not an exact science, but according to the results of the referenced study, certain names tend to correlate with various levels of academic performance.
They found out that the highest scoring names turned out to be Katharine followed by Samuel. The lowest female ranking name was Amber and for boys, it’s Travis. They suggest that “Katharine goes to the private school, statistically; Lauren goes to a public university, and Briana goes to community college. Sierra and Dakota, they don’t go to college.
The thinking behind this is Katharine is derived from Greek katheros meaning “pure” and the name is a direct reference to Saint Catherine of Alexandria and of course, Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. In addition, the name has been among the 100 most popular names in United States since 1880.
Before you go re-thinking your name, the study also suggests that the results may be relative and that our destinies are not predestined by our names. Proof in point is the omission of names such as Robert and Benjamin—two names, not so long ago, were closely associated with high academic and socioeconomic status. I wonder what they think about Donald!
What do you think? Does this resonate with your personal experience? Am I the “tall, dark stranger” that the name “Donald” means?
What’s In a Name?
When God selected Abram and Sarai to become God’s people, Abram became Abraham and Sarai became Sarah and the Bible has no explanation for that. When Saul, the Roman Christian persecutor was converted by the Risen Christ on the Damascus road, Christ changed Saul’s name to be Paul. Paul is considered one of the greatest theologians of all times.
Before Pope Francis was Francis, he was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. When the voting was taking place, Cardinal Hummes of Brazil whispered to Cardinal Bergoglio, “Don’t forget the poor.” Pope Francis told thousands of journalists that he took to heart the words of his friend and chose to be called after St. Francis of Assisi, “the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation,” the same created world “with which we don’t have such a good relationship.” We see that Pope Francis is becoming like St. Francis of Assisi.
Congratulations to Grace Baptist Church for your 100th Anniversary! You were not always named Grace. I read in your history that in around 1923, you were once referred to as the “Lighthouse Church in the United States” because you had a lighthouse on top of your church! The name didn’t last very long; because of poor construction, it was demolished.
Before your church selected “Grace” for your name in 1914, you drew up a constitution and considered names like: Third, Third Street, Calvary, Judson, Mispah, and Bethany. But on May 28, 1914, you became the Grace Baptist Church.
As Christians, grace means the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Grace also means the bestowal of blessing of divinely given talent or blessing from the Holy Spirit.
Remember Paul, one of the greatest theologians of all times? He wrote to the Romans in 3:21-25:
“But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.”
Since we have all sinned and no works on our part would ever save us, it is only by the grace of God in the gift of Jesus Christ that we receive salvation. Paul writes in Romans 11:5-6: “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.”
Has Grace Baptist Church in its 100 years of faithful ministry lived up to its name? Is there an onomastic correlation between God’s grace with how Grace Baptist Church has ministered to its neighbors? Let me offer three kinds of grace as you begin your next 100 years.
Generous Grace
The world is hardly gracious. It’s transactional rather than transformational meaning that you don’t get something for nothing. If you want something, you will need money to purchase it. You have a business-type transaction.
The history of Grace Baptist Church is that you have been practicing Generous Grace. In 1921, you sent $100 to Mrs. Marsh in China and $40 to Sudan Interior Missions. In 1922, you helped Japanese people by sending $280 to Osaka Bible Training School in Japan and $50 to Chico for Japanese women’s work in Sacramento. The Women of Grace were involved in many aspects of missions to the Chinese along the Sacramento River, the Negroes in the South, the Indians and Mexicans on the border. They were active to assist during the World Wars efforts and continue today with sending money and goods to American Baptist mission projects. Today you continue to receive the One Great Hour of Sharing offering to assist with world relief efforts where disaster happens. This is generous grace.
As Christians, we must never fall into the belief that when people are receiving help from us that we have the thought that people are taking advantage of us or that we are naively aiding or abetting in continuing the plight of the needy. We must never help the needy with the expectation or on the condition that they would pay us back. That’s what the world wants us to believe. Underlying this is that the world has no idea about what it means to have received unconditional love and grace from God himself. We can’t help ourselves from practicing generous grace because we have received God’s grace in Jesus Christ in our own lives.
Fulfilling Grace
When the apostolic church started, they shared all that they had with each other. In Acts 4:32-34, we read: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them.” This is Fulfilling Grace, fulfilling and filling the needs of people.
Imagine that there was not a needy person among them! Did you know that on November 22, 1942, you paid for soldiers to take their baths at the YMCA? Today, as you find yourselves in the middle of the city working with the Grace Community Center to enhance ministry with those with mental illness, you are still providing showers and laundry facilities but today for your homeless friends. You are working with Loaves and Fishes to provide meals for the hungry in your gym. This grace is filling the stomachs of hungry people not only with the food that they need but by your acts of grace, you are fulfilling the commandments of Jesus Christ to love God with all of your heart, mind and soul and to love your neighbors as we know that we love ourselves.
In sharing with your Pastor Daryl Laway’s passion, your commitment to people who are homeless and have mental illnesses did not come necessarily easy. It required that Pastor Laway like the apostles with great power gave his testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and then great grace came upon you. Your gracious acts of kindness and compassion are the direct results of your grateful heart of being saved by Christ.
Expected Grace
It’s customary to have an outside speaker like myself to come and speak at a church’s momentous anniversary. 100 years is a long time and no one here today was around in 1914, I think. It’s a bit awkward or too self-congratulatory to say the nice things that I have said about you. But as an outsider and friend, the heavens is the limit! But I hope that you will also realize that your 100th anniversary is only the year after your 99th and next year, it would be your 101st. In God’s counting method, it is just another year of the Lord.
In Romans 12, Paul made an appeal to the people and said,
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
Do take time to celebrate your 100th anniversary but don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think too. There is still much more to do in being gracious in the world. The last point I want to share is Expected Grace.
While you have lived out God’s grace in your history, there is still more history to make by being gracious. While you have generously given abundantly and sacrificially to meet the needs of others, there is still Generous Grace for you to give. While you have fed the hungry and showered the homeless, the hard and usual ungracious world out there is still causing children, youth, adults and families to go hungry at night and are in badly need to feel clean. While you might think that you have lived up to the name of Grace that you chose 100 years ago, God still expects you to practice grace some more because the world expects that from you.
Throughout the New Testament, the Apostle Paul begins with the salutation, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Will you continue to call upon God’s grace to ensure that Grace Baptist Church remains faithful to the unconditional love, undeserving merit manifested in our salvation by bestowing grace and blessings to others?
In your recent years, Grace Baptist Church has become known in the denomination to bear courageous witness in peace, justice and reconciliation. You have engaged in being a Christian witness in letter writing and peace work. You have reaffirmed your understanding of Baptist distinctives by being in dialogue with interfaith conversations and welcoming and affirming all people to your congregation. You have welcomed and you are now becoming more multiethnic and multi-cultural reflective of the community in which Grace resides. In all of your activities and convictions, you continue to live out your namesake of Grace.
Naming the World
Let me close with a Rabbi Marc Gellman midrash, one of my favorites. A midrash is the Jewish name for a story about a story in the Bible. This is Adam’s Animals.
100 years ago, you called yourselves “Grace.” Will you continue to “grow into your name” Grace? Will you now go out into the world to name everything that you see as love and not hate, hope and not despair, peace and not war, good and not bad, friends and not enemies, free and not slave, we and not them. I pray that you will because the world needs your generosity, wants to be fulfilled and expects you to be truly God’s free and unconditional love found in grace. In Titus 3, Paul writes “having been justified by Christ’s grace…we are to devote ourselves to good works.”
I think onomastic researchers can make a good case that there is a clear correlation between your name, Grace Baptist Church and how gracious you are!
Let us pray.
O God, you who built your church upon the one sure foundation, Jesus Christ, we lift up our hearts this day in gratitude. We give thanks for this day and the meaning it has in our lives and for those in this church for the past 100 years. We thank you for the Word preached in this church, and symbols of the Lord’s Supper and baptism. We thank you for the good fellowship of your people; and for the eternal blessing of grace that you have given us through Jesus Christ. We thank you for Grace Baptist Church that it continues to live up to its name of proclaiming your grace throughout the ages and around the world. To you, O God, be praise and glory in San Jose, in California and in the world through Jesus Christ. Amen.